~ cobwebs from Udolpho

Coincidence? … never

Another example from the “let’s pretend there’s a perfectly logical solution to that amazing scene at the end of the last chapter” school.

“To avoid the too often repeated subterfuge of the romantic historian, in straining every natural incident to produce amazing revolutions and critical (not to say impossible) events, it will be necessary to trace those which brought together the two beings involved, as it were, in similar circumstances, so far, at least, as the vindictive and cruel spirits of their merciless persectutors could effect; and to do this, we must advert to the situation in which we left Gustavus, as ell as touch upon those scenes in which he had formerly borne an active part.”

and yes, that is all a single sentence! From Swedish Mysteries by Anna Maria Mackenzie, Minerva Press, 1801.

How much more important it sounds to be a romantic historian rather than a mere novelist.